Russian foreign minister against banning US nationals to adopt Russian children

Sergei Lavrov called to offer “a stern response to any incidents with Russian girls and boys”

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MOSCOW, December 18 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has voiced criticism of the idea to impose a ban on adoptions of Russian children by U.S. citizens.

“I don’t think it is right,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “The institution of international adoptions has the right to exist. The main thing now is to see to it that children are adopted in a civilized manner. This is what we wanted when we signed relevant agreements with the United States, France and Italy.” Now, he added, “Russia is in talks with New Zealnd and a number of other countries, citizens of which want to adopt Russian children.”

He called to offer “a stern response to any incidents with Russian girls and boys.” “But I don’t think it right to ban adoptions as an institution,” he stressed.

“At the same time, it is absolutely unfair when some journalists say that it is not worth worrying over nineteen accidents with Russian children adopted by American families when thousands children feel happy in their new families,” the diplomat noted. “It is immoral. Any suffering child has the right to be protected. And those who torture or humiliate children, judges who pass absolutely disgusting verdicts, either acquitting and releasing or giving suspended sentences to those who raped, murdered and tortured children, these judges deserve to be censured.”

“It is necessary to put things to rights in this very system, and we are doing this having signed an agreement with the Americans,” he went on. “Now, we cannot get consular access to Maxim Babayev in the U.S. state of Florida. He was abused by his foster parents who had been stripped off parental rights long ago. “But we shall get access, because the U.S. federal government has such a liability, under the agreement it had signed with Russia.”

According to the Russian foreign minister, relations between the U.S. federal government and government of the states are somewhat different from relations between Russia’s federal government and regions. “In the United States, there are some problems between federal and state laws, but, I would like to repeat, we shall do our best to get access to the boy.”

“Following the logic and proceeding from the cases that took place, we will punish the judges [we share the State Duma’s stance on this problem], we will make to the U.S. government realize its responsibility,” Lavrov pledged.

But the initiative to prohibit any adoptions “echoes some examples from the Russian history, when it was much easier to prohibit any activities in a specific area than to expose real cases of lawfulness,” he said. “It is not right, and I am sure the State Duma will arrive at a well-balanced decision in the long run.”